‘The Predator’ First Reviews: Shane Black Brings the Fun Back to ‘Predator’

You might associate film festivals with tawny awards bait or earnest biopics about great men who changed the world by inventing suspenders or whatever, but there’s room for genre fare at the Toronto International Film Festival too. Last night at midnight, Toronto debuted the brand new reboot of The Predator, co-written and directed by Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3’s Shane Black.

Maybe the film qualifies as a biopic about an alien who changed the world by killing lots of people using advanced otherworldly technology, I don’t know; I haven’t seen it yet. Those who have seen it gave it mostly positive reviews. The ones we have so far praise Black and his dark sense of humor, along with the action and the cast. The more negative reviews bemoan the lack of horror in the series at this point and it’s failure to live up to the legacy of the original film from 1987.

That seems like at all order to me; I’m still looking forward to seeing The Predator next week. In the meantime, here’s a sampling of the first reviews:

“With its bawdy sense of humor, disorderly cast of characters, and hardcore kills and action, The Predator does a lot right to reinvigorate the 31-year-old series. But everything crashes down during its frenzied, messy final act, a disappointing conclusion to what had largely been a fun romp up until that point.”